7:45 am, July 20, 2024
A used car salesman has narrowly avoided jail after police caught him with nearly £500-worth of cocaine hidden inside his underpants.
Alex Younis, of Winchester Close, Newport, was pulled over by police in his hometown on January 13, 2023, after officers recognised him as a disqualified driver.
During a routine search, they found a Kinder egg capsule stuffed down the 22-year-old’s undergarments, which contained 12 wraps of cocaine.
As a result of the incident, his phone was seized and an investigation later found ‘text bombs’ trying to sell cocaine, the South Wales Argus reports.
Younis was arrested and has now appeared at Cardiff Crown Court, where he pleaded guilty to to possession with intent to supply a class A drug.
During proceedings, prosecutor Paul Hewitt told the court that the drugs in the defendant’s pants had a street value of between £360 and £480.
The judge, Recorder Christian Jewett, also heard from Younis’s defence lawyer, Joshua Scouller, who said his client had turned his life around since the incident.
After being caught with the drugs, Younis set up his own second-hand car sales business, which is now said to be providing a steady income.
Scouller also said that his client had played ‘a limited role’ and had ‘no influence on others in the chain’, when it came to the drug-selling operation.
He accredited the crime to Younis being ‘naive and immature’ and said the defendant is now free of drugs.
Scouller said: ‘Your honour will be well aware that people who are in steady, stable employment of some kind or another are far less likely to involve themselves in criminality.
‘The defendant recognises the very, very stupid mistake that he made in involving himself in this way and indeed in becoming involved in the supply and taking of class A drugs.’
After hearing all the evidence, Jewett, ruled that Younis had ‘realistic prospect of rehabilitation’ and spared him jail.
He was instead handed an 18 month sentence, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to carry out 175 hours of unpaid community work.
The judge also ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the cocaine and told the defendant that he must pay a £187 victim surcharge, as well as £150 prosecution costs.
Main image: © Barry Batchelor/PA Archive/PA Images
